Sunday, August 16, 2015

inner travels – phases of a forest moon

Summertime suits very well for ambient music, especially, if this is Inner Travels new cassette! Humidity and warmness, but at the same time - kind chill, generous invitation to the world of imagination. What Steve Targo actually do with these sounds can be called therapy, but not in the old-fashioned new-agey way. It's a very gentle kind of therapy, not a treatment - but just a reminder of what we all have inside. Recent Steve's work calledNourishwas some kind of tribute to "plant music" - as I thought at first, but listening to this album, I've realised that this music has much more to do with human heart and soul. If you nourish your soul, it grows and blooms - so, yes, we should treat ourselves as diligent gardeners. Ego always grows easily, like harmful weed, but it's not so easy to grow a fruitful soul. And this music certainly helps!

"Phases of a forest moon" is a nocturne. It has magical dimension, hidden from the surface. Little less naive than very first Inner Travels recordings, but still keeping that childish admiration of Nature, quiet celebration of every moment of life. Virtue, not so common these days. Ordinary emotions under the microscope of ongoing beautifulness, multiplied by careful selections of melodies and timbres. When the moonlight goes down from the sky, we do not say it came. It just is. And it was even when we didn't saw it. Same thing with Inner Travels' music - it seems that Steve just captures it from the air, condensing dissoluted beauty, creating simple forms, as easy as pie. There are many projects making music that comes from mind: calculated, pre-programmed, well-designed. This one is something very different. Intuitive continuation of nature lines and spaces, deep exploration of imagination capabilities...